Owl Love You Forever
by Vaudeville
Summary: Rorschach accidentally leaves his journal at Dan's. Dan finds something inside it.


When Rorschach showed up for patrol that night, Dan noted his agitation immediately. The brim of his fedora was pulled low, his shoulders set tighter than most nights, the belt of his trench coat tightened impossibly. Dan frowned._ Yep, he knows it's missing._

"Hey, buddy. Just gimme me a few--" Dan stopped, his sweater half pulled over his head, as Rorschach passed by him without a word and tromped up the stairs that lead from the Nest to the kitchen.

Dan tugged his sweater back down and went after him, resolving to change into his suit later, and stopped in the doorway just as Rorschach huffed a loud sigh of what sounded like relief. His head snapped up to look at Dan and he tucked the journal, which creaked in his tight grip, into his trench coat.

"Is everything all right?" Dan asked, pretending that he didn't know the answer.

"Forgot my journal last night," Rorschach told him, moving to face him though his head chin was dipped low and Dan couldn't see his face at all. He tied his trench coat even tighter and shoved his hands into his pockets with a violent force. "Been looking for it all day. Was concerned had fallen into the wrong hands."

Dan brushed a hand through the locks of hair on his forehead that threatened to fall into his eyes. "Ah, well, it's just a journal, right? No harm down."

"Have mentioned both our identities in it. Need to be more careful," he stepped toward Dan, who held his breath in a thick mixture of fear and anticipation. Rorschach nudged by him without flinching and Dan sighed a breath of both relief and maybe a little disappointment.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Dan answered, following him back down the stairs to the Owl's Nest. He wanted disperately to bring up the bookmark, but he couldn't think of anything to do but just... Well, _say_ it. "Well, er... I didn't, y'know, read it or anything--"

Rorschach grunted in approval. "Didn't think you would," he stated matter-of-factly. "Know I can trust you.

"Ready to go on patrol?"

"Er, well, no. Not yet," Dan went back to where his suit lay discarded on his bench and lifted it, dusting it off idly. "I uhm, I saw the little bookmark you've got in there though," he said, unable to help that boyish grin of his. "It's pretty, uhh--"

Rorschach had turned to face him, his head jerking with the motion, and then away as though he didn't care. His tense posture, resuming from earlier, belied just how much he _did_ care. "Oh?"

"Yeah," Dan chuckled, setting his suit aside once more and moving around the bench to sit down... And to likewise move that much closer to his friend. "It's cute."

Rorschach looked at him as if he was daft, then clucked in the back of his throat. "Just... Just something I found at public library."

_In the children's section?_ Dan wondered, smiling brighter. He wished, not at all for the first time, that he could see his partner's expression as he stared Dan down. He proceeded to take off his shoes, a minor distraction from their awkward conversation.

"Like owls too. Also reminded me of you," Rorschach added quietly.

Dan felt his heart flutter and his cheeks burn red like he was in grade school again and the girl he liked had just run up to kiss his cheek. Except he wasn't in grade school and this was Rorschach, his brutal and unpredictable partner, not a little girl who giggled and ran back to her friends afterward to giggle with some more.

"Picked it up," Rorschach continued to mutter quietly, shrugging nonchalantly. "Like owls too."

Dan glanced up at him and Rorschach immediately looked away from him, becoming very interested in a scratch on the toe of his boot. His mask swirled furiously in the way that Dan had come to associate it with an expression of extreme anger or embarrassment.

"Well," Dan told him as he stood and tugged his sweater up his back, "I think it's cute. I... I like it."

"Didn't read the journal, though?"

Dan started, realizing that Rorschach was suddenly standing very close to him. "N-no," Dan replied, his eyes wide as Rorschach's hands were suddenly in his face.

"What are you--?"

Rorschach paused, his gloves creaking as his hands hovered in the air. "Be easier to remove your sweater if you took off your glasses first," Rorschach whispered and Dan swallowed, tilting his chin down and closing his eyes as his partner removed them from his face.

"Thanks," Dan said with a nervous chuckle.

"You're welcome."

When Dan opened his eyes again, Rorschach was clear across the room, opening up Archie and pulling out the ramp. Time for patrol.

--

Walter stripped off the mask and carefully folded his Rorschach clothes, tucking them beneath his bed and away for the night. He sat down at the head of his bed and reached out to his bedside table for his journal and to switch on the lamp beside it.

He sighed and leaned back against the headboard, closing his eyes to reflect on the night before recounting it in his journal. He recalled the events of the night before, remembering that he would have to fill in the details of that patrol as well, but decided not to include any of the awkward happens before, during, and after tonight's patrol, when Daniel had invited him to

_'stay over and, er, watch a movie or the news or... something.'_

It had obviously hurt Daniel's feelings when he declined.

"All over a bookmark... Ridiculous," Walter muttered, but he couldn't help but feel warmed by it, a small smile pressing to his lips. _Have to be more careful regardless._

He opened the journal to the marked page and there was it was. '_Owl love you forever_.' He snorted and his smile widened reflexively.

He took the bookmark out and set it on his nightstand, pausing when he saw a piece of paper flutter behind it. Except it wasn't a piece of paper, it was a sheet of white cardstock, cut to the same size as the owl bookmark. It had a crease in it, bent through the middle, and when he turned it over, it had an ink blot on it--

-- in the shape of a heart.

And words inscribed were so small he had to lean close to the light to read them. _'Happy Valentines Day, Rorschach.'_ Another little heart, and it was signed,_ 'Nite Owl.'_


End file.
